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UNPD Chief Sees Positive Change For Development Aid - UN Finance - Global Policy Forum
UNPD Chief Sees Positive Change For Development Aid
By Jerome Hule
Panafrican News Agency
March 18, 2002UNDP Administrator, Mark Malloch Brown said the political debate about the relevance of development aid has changed for the better with the recent announcements by Europe and the US to increase their development assistance to developing countries.
Briefing journalists Monday in Monterrey, Mexico, at the opening of the International Conference on financing for development, Brown said although the proposed increases by the rich nations was modest in monetary terms, they demonstrated a big political commitment and a reversal of a decade of continuous decline in aid.
"This is a first modest step financially, but a big step politically," he said. Ahead of the Monterrey Conference, the European Union announced it would increase development aid to 0.39 percent of the Gross National Product of its member countries, from the current average of 0.33 percent.
The US also announced that it would raise development assistance by five billion dollars, from the current level of 10 billion dollars annually.
Both the US increase, which amounts to only 0.2 percent of its GNP and the EU increase, both fall short of the target of 0.7 percent of GNP that the UN had agreed in 1970.
But Brown said the willingness of donor nations to increase development aid indicates that they can go further in their commitment if developing nations could undertake the kind of reforms needed to achieve economic growth, improve the lives of the people and create a stable polity.
The Monterrey Conference document, he said, requires that aid recipient nations commit themselves to needed political, economic and social reforms that will create a basis for more aid and private investment.
For the UNDP, Brown said, the task will be to help developing countries in their reforms and carry out an assessment of the results of their efforts towards achieving the development goals set by world leaders in 2000.
Under current assessment of national progress towards achieving the goals, which include, halving poverty and increasing access to education, health care and water, Brown said 70 countries are now lagging behind.
The positive news is that the Asian region that accounts for two-thirds of the world's population is on course to achieving the target, he said, noting that Africa is, however, falling far behind.
But also worrisome, is the emergence of Eastern Europe as a new region with an increasing number of the poor, he said.
To achieve the development goals, experts estimate that development aid should be doubled from current level of 50 billion dollars per annum.
But a statement on the need to double the aid was, however, excluded from the document on the Monterrey Conference, following objections from donor nations.
The Conference runs from Monday to Friday, with more than 50 heads of State and government, including at least 10 from Africa, having confirmed their participation.
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